


This Too Shall Pass

by akuli



Category: Video Blogging RPF
Genre: Canon Related, Hurt/Comfort, Implied/Referenced Character Death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-02
Updated: 2021-03-02
Packaged: 2021-03-13 16:56:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,947
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29779263
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/akuli/pseuds/akuli
Summary: In which Fundy, Eret, and Nikki talk, for the first time in months, before the destruction of a nation they all called home in different ways.
Relationships: No Romantic Relationship(s)
Kudos: 9





	This Too Shall Pass

**Author's Note:**

  * For [luciditylost](https://archiveofourown.org/users/luciditylost/gifts).



> two posts in the span of 24 hours get into it.
> 
> this has been in the works for. literal months now. i fell a bit out of love with dsmp for a while, but i'm back, now. hope ya'll are doing okay after last night's stream(s) title, as always, is taken from the danny schmitt song.
> 
> elia. my darling. my love. i have been teasing this for so long, i am so sorry i kept you waiting. it's been a while since i started this, so my characterization for nikki is kind of wonky, but i tried my best for you. i hope you like it.

There is just under an hour before the battle, and Nikki’s been drifting in and out of conversations the whole time. Tubbo’s the one who tells her the time before Alex steals him away, and the only people in L’manburg are the ones aiming to destroy it, although nobody’s seen Tommy, Wilbur, or Dream, it seems. 

She ends up at the community house after Karl tells her what he’s done, revealing the existence of the secret city, _her_ secret city, to the man she decidedly hates the most right now. She moves to take a place atop one of the excessive amount of crafting tables in the place, leaning her sword up against the wall in favor of exhaling deeply, gripping at the edge of the block and closing her eyes.

(She supposes this is what Wilbur felt like when Eret betrayed him)

When she opens her eyes, tilting her head back, she finds someone else has joined her, frozen in place when she moves, “ Hey, Techno.”

“ M’lady,” the oldest of Phil’s children, whose absence in Dream’s world is carried with the mere sighting of any of them, bows his head towards her, one hand holding the crown he is never seen without in place.

“ Charming, as usual,” She replies. Techno, she’s found over the past few weeks of living with Wilbur in the ravine Tommy named, is a strange comfort. He’s like Wilbur, unyielding in his ideals, and as funny as his youngest brother, but he’s quiet, passing Nikki the freshest crop of potatoes to store away, offering her armor he used when he first arrived, because Wilbur refuses to wear any.

“Nikki,” She looks behind her, over her shoulder, to see Fundy jogging towards where her and Techno stand besides the spiral staircase. Her mouth sours, and she moves away as he reaches out to grab at her arm. He looks confused, maybe even a bit hurt, but it doesn’t stop his next words, “ I need to know whether or not you’re the traitor Niki,” next to her, Techno starts to say _I told you so._ Nikki would be offended if she didn’t know that Techno trusts nobody in this place, not even his two brothers. Fundy doesn’t wait for him to finish, cutting him off with his own, desperate whisper of “ please.”

“ Fundy,” She says, after a moment of silence, “ Can we have this conversation in private?”

“ Wh- You’re leaving me too?”

“ We’ll come back Techno,” Techno’s never been nearly as touchy as his brothers for as long as she’s known him, but he allows her to pat his arm sympathetically, “ I just- I need to talk to Fundy.”

  
  
  


“ Follow me,” Fundy starts down the path that winds through all the well-known buildings of Dream’s realm.

“ Fine, I’m just gonna play sad music.”

She waits until they come up to where the Prime path splits again, leading to the place of worship it’s named for, “ … your family, is-“

“ I know,” She’s reminded again of Wilbur in his son, who turns abruptly to her, placing himself in front of her so she’s forced to stop, “ Niki, are you the traitor?”

“ I’m telling you I’m not the traitor, Fundy,” she’s rather confused at where everyone’s getting this notion that there’s a traitor suddenly, much less that she’s a suspect, of all people.

“ Okay,” he says, even though he sounds more uncertain than before.

“ And,” she’s thankful for one thing, and that is that, for once, a conversation feels exactly like what the word implies, the give-and-take she’s, for the most part, exempt from, it seems, “ I’m willing to- to put our differences behind, so we can work together in this. Because I tr-“

“ What?”

“ Because I know you’re not the traitor.”

“ Listen. Listen,” Nikki tucks her fingers into the space between her chest and upper arm, because she misses her family, she does, but that does not mean she has to forgive them, especially Fundy, “ I don’t think you understand because you weren’t there. Niki-“ Fundy’s stumbling over his words just as much as she is, which is, in some ways, a comfort, “ “our differences?” Are you talking about the incident at the flag?”

“ Yes,” she says, low and with enough implied anger in her cool tone to make Fundy’s ears go flat against the top of his head.

“ Niki. There’s-“ he’s frustrated, ears swiveling back and forth, “ there’s a few things that I haven’t told you about because you weren’t there,” it seems like she never is, and there’s an anger that rivals that of the one that she’s known as Tommy’s since she met him that burns, hot and bright for just a few seconds, surprising even her, “ I did all of that to gain Schlatt’s trust, you know. I wrote an 18 page diary about all of the secrets about Schlatt and his overthrowing ideas and his weaknesses.” _Prime_ is all she can think, “ I gave that, by my hand, to Wilbur. I’m,” she feels a bit bad that she has to hold back laughter because of how Fundy’s tail thrashes behind him occasionally, usually when he goes quiet like this, seemingly trying to gather his thoughts into something coherent, “ I’m with you, alright? I’m with Pogtopia.”

  
  


“ … really?”

“ Yeah!”

“ Okay Fundy,” She doesn’t believe him, not really, but he doesn’t trust her, not in the way he used to, anyways, at least yet, “ I promise you now, I’m not the traitor.”

“ How can I trust you?” 

“ Okay. Fundy-“

“ Do something that a traitor would never do.”

(To say that Nikki hasn’t seen her brother in a month is not necessarily untrue. She’s caught glimpses of him, bright orange and the dark, cropped jacket he wears nowadays in the dark, occasionally with Schlatt, gesturing to the sorry excuse of a flag with a grin, at the festival, when he was fully prepared to put an arrow through her forehead. She’s not really seen him in a month. Prime, she really wants to see him again.)

“ This is a secret, and I sadly trusted Karl, and I think he’s telling other people, but he’s the only one who knows,” she makes herself meet his gaze, and there’s something that’s decidedly not pity, but not sympathy either, “ I built a secret city.”

There are calluses on Nikki’s hands that Wilbur dismissed as her assisting Tubbo in collecting resources. She creates a twisting staircase of smooth stone and diorite, and begins work. She slips away from Pogtopia when most everyone is offline, and spends hours excavating, bringing a chest to store the blocks that fall into neat stacks in her inventory. Nikki tells Karl this, because the anger that defines Tommy comes in waves, the tide dragging Tubbo and his best friend further apart, out into the sea, and Wilbur, who offered her a place in his great nation, now sworn to destroy it. She both resents this place for teaching her to trust nobody, and is grateful she did not actually show Karl where her city was. 

“ I built a secret city underground for people who just want to live in peace,” she wants him to come with her, because Alastair can’t, they have a castle and a crown, but Fundy, who has been cast aside by the man they both love despite it all, he still has a _chance_ , “ I just want to live in peace. I want L’Manburg back. And you know that I-“

“ So you-“

“ - been _openly_ against Schlatt.”

“ Do you know about Wilbur’s plans?”

  
  


“ What of his plans?”

“ I mean. Listen,” he likes that word, it seems, like Tommy likes to call everyone big, even though he’s taller than some of the adults, “ Wilbur said Plan B. Plan Bomb,”

“ I….” She thinks of the festival, of coaxing Tubbo away from the pit to begin to examine the blossoming scarring that was a result of an invention that was never meant to be used in war, “ I heard about that. We can’t let that happen. Fundy, we can’t let that happen, right?”

“ This is not just simply about winning a war, or getting back Manburg anymore. This is about _history_.”

(Upon learning of Fundy’s relation to Wilbur, most everyone he meets asks how Wilbur managed to father a son, much less one that’s half fox. In moments like these, where Fundy’s eyes darken with exhaustion, when he talks of a revolution she has only witnessed the aftermath of, she knows he is Wilbur’s son)

“ If we lose this battle, everything is lost,” he _really_ sounds like Tommy now, “ it’s not just a battle.”

“ I know, Fundy. This is the place where we grew up.”

“ This is,” Fundy laughs, and his voice breaks halfway through as he gestures down at L’Manburg, whose flag is no longer embraced by the wind “ I was born here. I was born here!”

“ I know,” it’s not much help, but she doesn’t know what else to say, “ we can’t let it happen. Wilbur’s,” she hates the way she says his name nowadays, how he’s made her doubt him, and the nation he represents, “ Wilbur’s gone insane.”

“ This is basically our last fight,” the way Fundy says it is contemplative and like he doesn’t believe what he’s speaking into existence, “ this is it.”

“ I know.”

“ Prime” Fundy looks over the edge of the hill tunnel goes through, laughing bitterly at the others who pass by, “ Eret’s here, too, everyone’s here,” there’s an incredulous way to how he says it. Nikki doesn’t blame him; she doesnt think she’s ever seen this many people in the same place either, “ If he blows it all up,” he laughs, looking back at her, “ I guess it’ll be quite a show, huh?”

“ Yeah,” she doesn’t like the way he says the last part, bitter and sad, “ Fundy, can I propose something?”

“ Go ahead,” he says, laughing, resignation in the way he chokes on what’s meant to be humor, “ I don’t really have anything to lose, now do I?”

“ We worked together before, and I trusted you before,” her eyes flit over to L’manburg, and she can’t see it, but she knows there’s a bakery tucked into the side of a hill, “ I really want to trust you because we have worked together, and I think we’re a good team,” she doesn’t look at the podium; she thinks about the way Fundy asked her, of all people, to be his running mate instead as she looks back to him, “ I will trust you in this,” Nikki says, even if she herself doesn’t quite believe it yet, “ so please,” Fundy’s hands are bigger than hers, but she doesn’t feel small next to him, not the way she does when Wilbur goes on his rants that last for hours and scare everyone in the ravine, “ please don’t break my trust again.”

“ I mean, we were,” Fundy pulls his hands back, and he tries to be kind about it, but he won’t meet her eyes anymore, “ listen. You can say we’re a good team… but we did have the least amount of votes-“

“ That doesn’t matter!” he doesn’t flinch at her voice, but the top of his ear twitches, “ _Listen to me._ You can’t lie,” she pushes his shoulder, just enough pressure that he looks up at her, “ if we got power, if we were presidents,” she gestures to L’mamburg, the flag that doesn’t give easily to the gentle breeze anymore, the man with the checkerboard sweater who scrambles away when her arm sweeps in his direction, “ none of this would have happened.”

“ You’re right,” Fundy looks past her, over her shoulder with his mouth twisted in a ugly, mean way, “ l would’ve fucked it up more.”

“ … _Fundy_.”

“ Man if I would’ve been President,” There’s something in Fundy’s eyes that’s too close to the satisfaction Wilbur took in watching his youngest brother, who he knows full well would follow him until the end, beaten by his oldest, who, at the very least, helps Tommy to his feet, “ that would’ve been good,” his eyes sweep over L’manburg, and Nikki does her best to follow his gaze, trying to see the poison his father sees in the nation he founded, “ That would’ve been really good,” he repeats, quieter, “ the flag would’ve stayed the same,” he adds, and Nikki thinks there’s definitely something wrong with the relief that inspires in her.

“ I think that’s the first good idea you’ve had today,” She can’t smile just yet, but there’s enough humor implied by the statement alone that Fundy snorts, and the line of her mouth twitches.

“ Oh, fuck you.”

“ I-“

“ Don’t. Don’t make that joke, prime. Tommy will make our life _hell_.”

They lapse into silence after that, watching as the rest of the server arrives, Dream’s most loyal allies talking amicably with some of Sandburg's most adamant supporters. 

“ Hey Fundy?”

“ Yeah?”

Nikki slides her arms between the empty space of his, careful in where she props her hands up by the thumb on his back. She has to stand on her toes, but she manages to press her nose into his shoulder, “ I missed you.” 

She feels Fundy tense against her for a moment before his forearms come to rest against her shoulder, “ I missed you too.”

Nikki holds her younger brother for the first time in years, and he cries.

When he pulls away, his chest is ringing and falling irregularly,“ Prime, this is-“ he rubs away the wetness under his eyes, “ not how I expected today to go.”

“ Me too,” Nikki knows it’s no reassurance, and it’s not hers to give, but she wants to, if he will let her, “ Do you want to go find the others?”

“ Yeah,” he reaches for her this time, and she takes his hand eaglery, promising within the privacy of her own mind not to let go, “ yeah, I think that’s probably a good idea.

  
  


* * *

  
  
  
  


As it turns out, Alex, Tubbo, and Techno have gathered not far from the docks, on a small hill under what Tubbo says is Tommy’s summer home. She wades through the water with Fundy, her black pants rolled up to her knees, although the ends get wet anyways, cool against her ankles once she rolls them down again. Alex and Tubbo have constructed a wall of wood, and are nailing signs to it with names of people who are on their side, those who are neutral, and those on Manburg’s. She informs them of the allegiances of the people she knows, but for the most part, she listens, drifting between where Techno paces back and forth, disrupting the sand, and Fundy, who’s quieter than she’s ever seen him when he pulls Tubbo and Alex into a huddle, just the three of them.

She doesn’t know where Wilbur and Tommy are. It seems none of them do. She pulls the end of her sweater over her fists, fabric tucked into her palm, held tightly, and she does not cry. There will be time for mourning later, she’s got a feeling.

She’s brought out of her own thoughts by Tubbo’s surprised exclamation of, “ Eret? What’re you doing here?”

Sure enough, when Nikki looks up, her sibling is stepping over the gap between the mainland and the island. He’s wearing his glasses, but he stops and holds her gaze as Fundy continues, gesturing towards the wood, “ I think Eret-“

“ -put him”

“ Prime, this is why nothing ever gets fucking done around here,” Alex sounds defeated, but not in the way that Wilbur does, especially when he turns to give the king his full attention, despite the background noise of familal bickering “ Eret. What happened.”

“ I’ve been dethroned.”

“ What?”

“ By Dream?” 

“ I’m no longer king.”

(He is still graceful, despite the royalty that defined him, that she knows he relished in, being ripped away. She notices the way her eldest brother’s fingers brush across the gems of his crown every so often, and reminds herself to return the favor he once extended to her, when Wilbur and Tommy were taken from her and she cried for an entire day.) 

“ Why don’t you just start your own nation, big man?” Tubbo moves away Alex and Fundy, hugging Alastair sideways before he steps back, joining them again. His suggestion isn’t meant to be a mockery, but it looks and feels it, from the way Alastair shifts on his heels uncomfortably, and the way Techno’s gaze finds the back of Tubbo’s head quickly.

“ Dream-“

“ or you know,” Fundy gestures to the wall of wood, which Techno continues to scowl at, “ you could fight with us.”

“ That was the plan, if you’ll all have me.”

“ Tubbo,” Nikki and Fundy say in unison, a question in one, a demand in the other.

“ I mean…” She can _see_ him considering the possibilities, before he sighs and shrugs, “ what the hell, why not.”

“ Do we _really_ want him on our side?”

“ Yeah…”

“ Yes!” Nikki confirms enthusiastically, moving to stand next to her brother to further emphasize her declaration, “ I trust Eret. Eret is my friend! Eret has been my friend since the start!”

Fundy’s eyes flit between the two of them, although he doesn’t say anything to them, instead, turning to Techno, who suddenly looks very different, “ Techno you put Schlatt on our side, what are you talking about?”

“ That was a joke! We’re literally sitting here like okay, let’s put all of our master plans on this big board here, and invite Eret, who was our mortal enemy up until two sentences ago and now is out best friend-“

“ Well-“

“ -strategy, guys! Oh yeah, that can’t backfire.”

“ Well, I mean, there’s no strategy actually-“ Techno’s already started to turn away, frustrated, and Nikki can’t blame him, even if she doesn’t agree, “ okay, yeah, okay, Techno, you’re right. I hate it when you’re right,” She notices, as they lapse into silence, how tired Tubbo in particular looks. It’s not a new thing; she’s been trying her best to talk to him in Wilbur and Tommy’s absence, even if their exchanges were few, seeing as he was usually accompanied by Schlatt, or Fundy, neither of which she wanted to talk to. When he leans into Alex, she’s reminded of the day all this started, running from the stage, to her bakery, alone. She’s glad he isn’t alone anymore, at the very least.

“ To be fair,” nobody asks her to speak, but they rarely do, so she takes this chance, where everyone has gone quiet, no matter the circumstances, to do just that, “ I never stopped being friends with Eret. Neither did Fundy or Tubbo. It was really Wil and Tommy who held that grudge.”

“ Thank you, Nikki,” her brother says it loud enough for the rest to hear, but it runs deeper than simply defending their honor, and Nikki knows he, at the very least, understands this, “ I am with Techno on this one, though. This board could not be more obvious.”

“ Alright Eret, then you help us, if you’re so smart.”

There’s a mean edge to it, but if Alastair notices, he certainly doesn’t voice it. He turns to the makeshift wall as Alex guides Tubbo around the corner, back towards the docks, “ So, everyone who was just here,” He looks back at Nikki and Fundy with a question in the way his lips stay touching for a beat, hesitance in the thinly veiled question in two words, “ Tommy and Wilbur?“

“ Fundy, have you seen Wilbur?”

(She does not mean in the literal sense. She thinks he knows that, from the way he flips up the collar of his jacket, fingers lingering, brushing across the fabric.) 

“ … no.”

“ He’s-“ its her turn to not be able to meet his eyes, “ I don’t recognize him anymore.”

“ Really?”

He doesn’t sound as surprised as he should. Nikki sounds desperate now, she knows it, but she’s scared, and she’s not afraid to admit it, even the rest of them have too much pride to, “ he’s the person I fought for, he’s the person I _did this for_ . I don’t even know _why_ I’m doing this anymore if he doesn’t believe in it either.”

“ … huh,” the way he says it, contemplatively, make her angry, the way she was crowded against the wall by three men who did not care about the history the country she loved, she _loves_ , represents, “ well, we’re lucky it’s Plan B and not plan A.”

“ Fundy,” She’s shorter than him, the both of them, but she is no less powerful, catching the bottom of Fundy’s jacket when he tries to step back, away from her, “ we can’t let him blow up L’manburg. It’s our house! It’s our home!”

“ I mean,” He finally meets her gaze, and there’s a resignation in the way he laughs, short, and with no real humor in it, “ I don’t really live anywhere, you know that.”

“ You were born here,” it’s nothing short of a whisper, and his eyes find the group, the black boots they’re both wearing.

“ I mean, there should be some sort of emotional connection to the place you were born, right?” Alastair’s calculated in the way they speak around their siblings, which makes Nikki even sadder.

Fundy laughs, but his eyes are unfocused as he looks over her shoulder, in the direction of L’manburg, “You would think so.”

None of them quite know what to say after that, judging from the way Fundy’s gaze does not leave the horizon that touches his former home, and Nikki, who looks as if she'd like to say something, but can’t find the right words. She resigns to finding a place to sit, and rubs the exhaustion out of her eyes. The sun is a crescent above the makeshift board when Alastair speaks “ Okay,” Nikki finds her brother between the gaps in her fingers, shifting on his feet, arms open, an offer he knows neither of them can refuse, “ c’mere, the both of you.”

“ … why?”

Nikki’a face is already tucked between her sibling’s neck and the sharp corners of the armor they wear, and Alastair’s exhasperation is palpable in the way her body stiffens as she holds in a breath “ Just get in here, you stubborn fuck” Nikki can imagine Fundy’s expression, even now, as Alastair shifts, once again “ you both look like you need one, right about now.”

“ I hate you,” She hears Fundy say, but seconds later there is the brush of fabric against her shoulder, and Alastair is holding the both of them close. He always was their protector.

* * *

It’s funny. Nikki’s bakery is untouched by the explosives that rip apart the earth, and she thinks, sometimes, when new L’manburg is too loud with the children that rule it, what her old friend wanted to tell her.

(She moves all her valuables to her private city. She can’t stand to be in the bakery anymore, and when she gives her brother, this one truly bound by blood, his first official tour of the nation, she offers it to him. He looks sad when she does, but hides it with another joke at his expense, and they move on.)

For how difficult it’s been for her, she knows Fundy’s burden is that of Atlas, burdened with the legacy of a father who chose death over compromise, who is fatherless and still a child. 

So when Fundy approaches her about the secret city, about running away, she tells him to pack his valuables, and reassures him that they will leave when he is ready.

(Nikki loves L’manburg. She thinks she might be the only one who does, at this point, but she would choose to make her brother happy over the nation she will one day she dreams to restore to its former glory any day)

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> as always, leave a kudos / comment only if you want, and i hope you enjoyed :)


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